Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #203-1 01312026: Pope Rumors Debunked: Don't Believe Viral Church Hoaxes

Transcript

Good News #203-1 01312026: Pope Rumors Debunked: Don't Believe Viral Church Hoaxes · Catholic Spirit Radio

• 0:00
  Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
• 0:05
  teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
• 0:09
  lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
• 0:14
  And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
• 0:17
  Good evening and welcome to Good News. I am Deacon Al Lundy,
• 0:22
  Permanent Deacon of the Peoria Diocese.
• 0:24
  Happy to be speaking with all of you this Sunday, or Saturday night,
• 0:29
  depending on when you tune in to talk to you about good news,
• 0:32
  the good news of Jesus Christ, our Lord, as we discover and uncover through
• 0:37
  the readings of the Mass.
• 0:39
  And so this is the fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time. We will be into Lent before you know it.
• 0:45
  We're like two weeks away from Lent.
• 0:48
  Ash Wednesday, I believe, is the 18th of February.
• 0:51
  And then Easter follows closely behind. So we're just cutting right through
• 0:56
  the liturgical year. We call it ordinary time not because it's mundane or regular or normal.
• 1:04
  This is ordinary as in numbers. So a whole number is in ordinary.
• 1:09
  So when we say ordinary time, it means we're counting the weeks.
• 1:13
  So this is the fourth week of ordinary time. We have 34 weeks in total.
• 1:18
  And in between those periods of ordinary time, we have Easter and Christmas.
• 1:24
  So that's what we're counting between.
• 1:28
  So on good news, we normally start the program talking about something going
• 1:32
  on in my life or in the life of the church.
• 1:35
  And then in the second half, we'll go through our readings for the mass.
• 1:40
  Our first reading will be from the prophet Zephaniah. The second reading is
• 1:44
  from Paul, from letters to the Corinthians.
• 1:47
  And then our gospel is from Matthew. And it's one of the—,
• 1:51
  I think the best gospel, this is the rules of the road.
• 1:56
  If you drive, there are certain rules you have to know to drive safely and successfully.
• 2:03
  So Jesus in today's gospel gives us the rules for the road for a happy life,
• 2:09
  both now and in the next life.
• 2:12
  But first, so I was at an OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults.
• 2:20
  This is a class that lasts about nine months where we prepare people to enter the Catholic Church.
• 2:27
  And at the parishes I serve, we have 13 people right now as candidates looking
• 2:33
  to enter the Catholic Church.
• 2:35
  And at class on Wednesday, after the class, a parishioner came up to me and
• 2:41
  said, I'd like your opinion on something.
• 2:44
  Sure, what is it? She says, these changes the Pope has made.
• 2:48
  What? Oh, all these changes the Pope has just announced. Surely you've heard about it.
• 2:55
  No, no, I haven't. What are they? Oh, they're all over the internet.
• 3:00
  Well, right there, the red flags go up, right? Oh, you know,
• 3:03
  what are we in for now? So what kind of changes?
• 3:06
  I don't remember them all, but like he's getting rid of confession and,
• 3:11
  So really, Jesus establishes it, and Pope Leo's getting rid of it?
• 3:16
  I don't think so. I said, I think there's more to this story.
• 3:20
  Well, go on the internet, and she told me what to look for. And I did.
• 3:25
  I did this afternoon, in fact, so that I could talk to her about this when I
• 3:29
  see her in the upcoming weeks.
• 3:32
  And sure enough, there it is. A number of things.
• 3:35
  I won't go into the number. I don't want to make this easy for anybody to search
• 3:38
  because it's absolute rubbish. Let's say that right from the outset.
• 3:43
  This is absolute rubbish.
• 3:45
  Let's remember the Catholic Church is 2,000 years old, and it has changed very
• 3:51
  little, especially in its teachings and its sacraments.
• 3:55
  It has changed very, very little in the last 2,000 years.
• 4:00
  What we teach right now is doctrines and dogmas have been around for centuries.
• 4:06
  So when I find what she's talking about, it's a series of videos.
• 4:11
  It's like a dozen. And the first video is an opening, and then each succeeding
• 4:19
  video is one of these points of these major changes that the Pope is making.
• 4:25
  And she was right. One of them is getting rid of confession.
• 4:30
  Well, this is insane. The Pope would never do that.
• 4:34
  One of them was women priests. I'm sorry, but that's already been debated.
• 4:39
  And we've had numerous popes now say, that just cannot happen.
• 4:45
  And here's why. And they explain it. And it has nothing to do with misogyny.
• 4:50
  It has to do with, actually, with marriage and what is a valid marriage.
• 4:57
  But what was really interesting, one was, he's getting rid of titles.
• 5:03
  There will be no more popes, no more bishops, no more cardinals, no more monsignors.
• 5:08
  It'll all be father, only father. That's it. Everybody's a father.
• 5:14
  Well, that's not going to happen. I'm sorry.
• 5:17
  The office of pope, even though it wasn't called pope, the office,
• 5:22
  the authority, again, established by Christ in Scripture, that's not going to change.
• 5:28
  The role of bishop is in Scripture. Timothy was a bishop. Linus was a bishop.
• 5:34
  He's not going to get rid of that. These are all important offices that are
• 5:40
  necessary in the church.
• 5:43
  We're a worldwide church. We're not some country club on the street.
• 5:48
  This is a huge, huge religion, and we need to be able to identify certain authorities.
• 5:56
  So I thought, well, that's just not going to happen. So I'm reading through these, and I'm.
• 6:01
  They're very well produced. Oh, I mean, you've got Gregorian chant in the background
• 6:10
  and beautiful graphics,
• 6:12
  really high-level graphics of the Vatican and of the Pope and of the Basilica,
• 6:18
  and just everything's there.
• 6:21
  And you've got this wonderful narrator's voice who's obviously AI.
• 6:27
  This is not a human voice. This is a computer voice.
• 6:31
  But the diction is perfect. And the whole narration is just perfect.
• 6:36
  And it sounds very official. And it looks very, very official.
• 6:42
  And it explains that the Pope is going to do this for the good of the Mother Church. Yeah.
• 6:48
  Well, if you're familiar with YouTube, there's an area you can click on that
• 6:54
  takes you into details of the background of whatever you're watching.
• 6:59
  And one of those details is, on some of these things, a little yellow flag that says, disclaimer.
• 7:06
  I want to read to you what the disclaimer says on every one of these videos.
• 7:12
  It says, quote, this video is fictional and a symbolic story created by fans of Pope Leo XIV.
• 7:26
  It is not based on real events or official church statements.
• 7:33
  That's what it says on every one of these videos. But it doesn't show it when you go to the video.
• 7:39
  You have to go, you have to dig down to find the disclaimer.
• 7:43
  This These are awful. This is downright sinful. This is dangerous.
• 7:50
  If you have anybody coming up to you saying, oh, I heard the Pope is doing this,
• 7:54
  and it doesn't sound normal, it's not.
• 7:59
  If it doesn't sound like what the Church has been teaching for 2,000 years, it's a lie.
• 8:04
  The Pope isn't just going to get rid of sacraments.
• 8:08
  The Pope can't do that. And the magisterium knows it, the College of Cardinals
• 8:16
  knows it, everybody knows it.
• 8:17
  But we also have become a society that, well, if it's on the internet,
• 8:23
  it must be true, right? I've even seen a quote saying,
• 8:28
  If it says so on the internet, it must be true, and the quote is signed by Abraham Lincoln.
• 8:32
  You know, it's just, these are just outrageous statements, and they say that
• 8:37
  they're friends of the Pope, that's the name of their organization.
• 8:42
  These are not friends of the Pope. These are, the best I could describe them
• 8:47
  is, this is what it means to be an Antichrist.
• 8:50
  To teach against the teachings of Christ is what makes someone an Antichrist.
• 8:55
  The Antichrist isn't one being, and it's not someone we're waiting for.
• 9:00
  A lot of people think, well, in Revelation, it talks about the coming of the
• 9:04
  Antichrist. No, it doesn't.
• 9:05
  The word Antichrist doesn't even appear in the book of Revelations.
• 9:10
  If you want to find out what an Antichrist is, you have to read 1 and 2 John.
• 9:15
  Those are the only two books in the Bible where the word Antichrist is even
• 9:20
  mentioned. And even then, John says to his audience, there are antichrists among us now.
• 9:29
  Anyone who teaches contrary to the teachings of Christ is an antichrist.
• 9:35
  So that's what these people are doing, whoever these friends are that are putting
• 9:39
  this out as if it's actually coming from Pope Leo.
• 9:44
  These are absolute, absolute lies. This is just garbage.
• 9:48
  Do not believe people who say, I heard on the Internet that.
• 9:53
  Now, they may have heard it on the Internet. That might be true.
• 9:55
  But that doesn't make what they heard factual.
• 9:59
  I mean, I got misled a couple weeks ago by an article that was in The Pillar,
• 10:05
  which is a news source that covers the Vatican.
• 10:09
  And what they said may be true. It may happen.
• 10:13
  They're talking about the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
• 10:19
  That may actually happen. They said within the next few weeks,
• 10:22
  the Vatican's going to announce this.
• 10:24
  They might very well do it, but they haven't yet.
• 10:29
  And our bishop hasn't mentioned anything yet.
• 10:33
  Don't go by friends of the Pope. You don't know who these friends are.
• 10:38
  You don't even know if they even know the Pope.
• 10:40
  You don't know if the Pope even knows them.
• 10:43
  But I can tell you this. if someone tells you that the Pope is changing some
• 10:48
  long-held tradition of the church, odds are nope, that's not actually happening.
• 10:55
  This woman was really concerned about these changes.
• 10:59
  And after seeing what they were, I'd be concerned too if I thought they were true.
• 11:04
  But they're obviously not. And some of them were very, very upsetting that any
• 11:11
  Pope would even say this.
• 11:13
  And so, anyone who knows their faith, have faith in the church, not in the internet.
• 11:20
  Have faith in what you've been taught through the church.
• 11:24
  There's a lot of evil in the world.
• 11:28
  There's a lot of ways that evil tries to attack good Christians,
• 11:34
  good people, good churches.
• 11:36
  And you have to be aware, and that's the whole danger of an Antichrist,
• 11:41
  is they're going to be very sincere and they're going to seem very knowledgeable.
• 11:46
  The problem is they're not right. And the easiest way to tell is look at what
• 11:52
  Christ actually taught.
• 11:54
  If what they're saying isn't what Christ taught, then it's not true.
• 12:00
  And I'm warning you to beware. Please don't go look for this.
• 12:04
  Don't look it up. There's no point to it. It's all trash.
• 12:07
  But be aware and just put this in your arsenal of how you defend yourself and
• 12:13
  how you defend your faith when people bring these things up to you.
• 12:17
  If it doesn't sound kosher, it probably isn't.
• 12:21
  And so rather than buy into it,
• 12:25
  look for ways to dissuade them and to show the evidence through apologetics,
• 12:30
  through reasonable control, controlled conversation, explain to them where the fault lies in that.
• 12:37
  And if somebody says, well, I heard the Pope said yada, yada, yada.
• 12:42
  If you're not sure, go to the Vatican website. There's an official Vatican website.
• 12:47
  I believe it's vatican.org.
• 12:50
  And all the latest news that's actually coming from the Vatican is there.
• 12:56
  And you can see it in the Pope's own words. And go by that. Don't go by YouTube or any of these other.
• 13:05
  Bulletin boards or conversation groups that are online, don't go by those because
• 13:10
  there's a lot of bad information out there.
• 13:13
  So yeah, great disclaimer. The video is fictional, a symbolic story created by fans of Pope Leo XIV.
• 13:21
  It is not based on real events or official church statements.
• 13:27
  So if you hear some nonsense about the Pope getting rid of sacraments or changing
• 13:32
  church titles, and it's all a bunch of rubbish.
• 13:34
  With that, we're going to take a short break.
• 13:37
  We'll be back with more good news here on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 13:41
  Stay tuned. Good news will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 13:45
  ICatholic Mobile is a 5G mobile phone company dedicated to supporting your faith
• 13:50
  and values, offering unlimited talk and text, reliable data,
• 13:55
  and plans that support Catholic causes.
• 13:57
  A portion of every dollar helps sustain the mission of the Catholic Spirit Radio
• 14:01
  Network. With nationwide coverage, iCatholic Mobile connects you to what matters most.
• 14:07
  More information is available at iCatholicMobile.com.
• 14:11
  ICatholic Mobile underwrites for the Catholic Spirit Radio Network.
• 14:20
  And welcome back to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.
• 14:23
  I am Deacon Al Lundy, and we're going to dive into the readings for the fourth
• 14:28
  Sunday of Ordinary Time.
• 14:31
  Our first reading is from the prophet Zephaniah, and it says,
• 14:36
  Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth, who have observed his law.
• 14:42
  Seek justice, seek humility.
• 14:45
  Perhaps you may be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger.
• 14:49
  But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly,
• 14:54
  who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord, the remnant of Israel.
• 14:59
  They shall do no wrong and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their
• 15:05
  mouths a deceitful tongue.
• 15:07
  They shall pasture and couch their flocks, with none to disturb them. the word of the Lord.
• 15:15
  So, what Zephaniah is promising here is that not all of the tribes of Israel
• 15:23
  are going to do the right thing and follow the Mosaic laws.
• 15:29
  They're not going to follow the traditions of the people.
• 15:32
  Some will, and good for them.
• 15:35
  They stand a better chance on the judgment day of avoiding the anger of God, as they put it.
• 15:44
  And it's actual, rather than anger, it's more of the righteous judgment of God.
• 15:50
  But what I want to point out is a few of the very specific things he said. Be humble. Be obedient.
• 15:58
  Seek justice. Seek humility. Because we're going to hear that same theme now
• 16:04
  through other parts of this weekend's reading.
• 16:08
  And the Responsorial Psalm is interesting because Blessed are the poor in spirit,
• 16:14
  the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And the word blessed is very important.
• 16:20
  A lot of people don't realize that blessed and beautiful and happy all come
• 16:25
  from the same root words.
• 16:27
  And so we're going to see that as we go through here. So our second reading
• 16:32
  is St. Paul to the Corinthians.
• 16:34
  So this is from 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
• 16:38
  Paul writes, consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.
• 16:43
  Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful,
• 16:48
  not many were of noble birth.
• 16:50
  Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
• 16:55
  and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
• 16:59
  and God chose the lowly and the despised of the world, those who count for nothing,
• 17:04
  to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.
• 17:13
  It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from
• 17:19
  God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that as it is written,
• 17:26
  whoever boasts should boast in the Lord, the word of the Lord.
• 17:31
  So again, we're hearing about being humble, being poor in spirit.
• 17:38
  How the lowly are going to fare better than the rich, how the weak are going
• 17:44
  to fare better than the strong.
• 17:46
  And that same theme we hear in the gospel, which is from Matthew.
• 17:52
  And this is the Beatitudes. This is the Sermon on the Mount.
• 17:55
  Now, what's really amazing about this, they say this is the greatest sermon
• 17:59
  ever written because this is the
• 18:01
  roadmap to a happy life, not only in this world, but in the next world.
• 18:06
  And the word that we see repeated over and over is blessed, right?
• 18:11
  Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek.
• 18:15
  And as I read this, every time you hear the word blessed, I want you to think happy.
• 18:20
  Because that's what blessed means. It means happy.
• 18:23
  In the original Greek text of the New Testament, the word that was used,
• 18:29
  the Greek word, and my Greek is worse than my Hebrew, so I'm not going to try and do it.
• 18:35
  But both the Greek and the Hebrew text, the Greek text especially,
• 18:40
  the word actually means happy life, good life.
• 18:43
  When you say somebody, God bless you, you're wishing them a better life, right?
• 18:48
  Better health. So when we say blessed, we're talking about happiness.
• 18:54
  Someone who's blessed is truly happy.
• 18:57
  So in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says.
• 19:02
  When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up the mountain, and after He had sat down,
• 19:05
  His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying,
• 19:09
  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• 19:14
  Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek,
• 19:19
  for they will inherit the land.
• 19:22
  Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
• 19:27
  Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean
• 19:31
  of heart, for they shall see God.
• 19:34
  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
• 19:39
  Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
• 19:42
  for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
• 19:45
  Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind
• 19:50
  of evil against you falsely because of me.
• 19:53
  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. The Gospel of the Lord.
• 20:01
  So again, as you think about this, a couple of things to remember.
• 20:04
  Blessed means happy. So blessed are they who mourn, blessed are the meek.
• 20:09
  So happy are those who mourn, happy are the meek, happy are those who hunger
• 20:13
  for righteousness, happy are those who are merciful, happy are the clean of heart.
• 20:18
  And why is this so important? Well, if you think about it, what do we all strive
• 20:24
  for in this life? Happiness.
• 20:27
  What does everyone want, no matter who they are, no matter what their age,
• 20:32
  no matter what their occupation, no matter what their place in society,
• 20:36
  they all want to be happy.
• 20:39
  Well, where does the secular world look for happiness? In wealth? In possessions?
• 20:46
  In authority? In power? In wealth?
• 20:50
  Addictions. They're all in search of happiness.
• 20:54
  Well, here's the problem. All those things can be taken away.
• 20:58
  How many times have you heard the stories of a lottery winner who within a couple years are bankrupt?
• 21:05
  What happened to all those millions? It just goes away. It goes away.
• 21:09
  How many people are happy because they own a big house and then there's a house
• 21:14
  fire and the house goes away.
• 21:17
  Maybe they're happy in their marriage, but marriages sometimes end either through
• 21:23
  death or divorce or they lose that bond of love. It can go away.
• 21:31
  There's nothing on this earth that's permanent, nothing.
• 21:34
  The clothes you wear will someday belong to someone else, right?
• 21:38
  Everything, everything is temporary. You never see a moving van following a hearse.
• 21:46
  Nothing goes with you. Everything ends up going away.
• 21:50
  But nobody can take humility from you.
• 21:53
  No one can take mercy away from you.
• 21:57
  No one can take your forgiveness for others, your ability to forgive.
• 22:04
  No one can take that away from you. You own that forever.
• 22:07
  Those are the things that you take to heaven with you are those attitudes.
• 22:11
  I love it when they call it the Beatitudes. Beatitude actually means,
• 22:15
  again, happy life. A Beatitude is, we get beauty from the same part.
• 22:19
  Something's beautiful means that that thing, that person, that attitude,
• 22:23
  whatever, makes you happy.
• 22:26
  That's where beauty comes from. It's things that make you happy.
• 22:31
  So, the things that Jesus talks to us about are things that are permanent,
• 22:36
  not only in this world, but are in the next world. You take these with you.
• 22:41
  And this is what God looks at when you come before him in heaven.
• 22:46
  That's why we talk about the beatific vision of God, the happy vision, the joyful.
• 22:53
  You are filled with joy and glee being in the presence of God because God is
• 22:58
  the only thing, the only person who can bring you real happiness.
• 23:03
  And it comes through these attitudes that we hear about in this sermon.
• 23:07
  These are not different groups.
• 23:10
  When Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
• 23:13
  God and blessed are they who mourn.
• 23:15
  He's not talking about two different groups, the group that mourns and the group
• 23:20
  that's poor in spirit. those aren't different groups.
• 23:23
  He's talking about in you as a single person.
• 23:27
  These are things, all the things that you should encompass in your personality, in your being.
• 23:34
  Every one of us should be poor in spirit. We should be meek and humble and hunger
• 23:39
  for righteousness and be merciful to others and be clean in hearts and be looking
• 23:44
  for ways to make peace in a very chaotic world. We.
• 23:49
  We should be taking care of those around us who are persecuted.
• 23:53
  We should not take offense against those who persecute us because that means
• 23:57
  we're doing the right thing in God's eyes.
• 24:00
  So this isn't a list of different types of people. This is a list for each of
• 24:05
  us of characteristics we need to encompass. Not that easy.
• 24:11
  Christianity is not an easy route. We talk about being happy. C.S.
• 24:15
  Lewis, who's a wonderful Christian writer, has some great books that you should
• 24:20
  read anything you can get your hands on by C.S.
• 24:23
  Lewis. But one of my favorite quotes is, he doesn't look to religion.
• 24:27
  He doesn't reach for religion to be happy.
• 24:30
  If he wants to be happy, he'll reach for a bottle of port wine because that'll make him happy.
• 24:36
  And he follows that by saying, if you're looking for an easy life,
• 24:41
  I do not recommend Christianity, because none of these things are easy.
• 24:46
  These are the things that will make you truly happy, but it's not easy to do.
• 24:51
  You can't do it on your own, which is what Christ teaches us,
• 24:56
  that none of this can be done on our own. We're human, which means we're broken.
• 25:01
  We've been broken since the sin of Adam and Eve.
• 25:03
  But being a follower of Christ, we can find the strength and the ability through
• 25:11
  the graces of God to be this person that Jesus explains here, that he describes.
• 25:17
  This is what it means to be in the image of Christ.
• 25:21
  If you think about all these things he lists, the meek, the humble,
• 25:25
  the forgiving, the merciful, that's how Christ lived with us.
• 25:31
  Those were the personalities that he displayed and taught us about.
• 25:36
  So to be in the image and the likeness of Christ, you need to walk in the steps of the beatitude.
• 25:47
  Great, great gospel this weekend. Take it to heart. Read it over and over. Matthew chapter 5.
• 25:53
  This is the person Christ calls us to be.
• 25:56
  Look for where you are currently at in your life and where you can improve in
• 26:02
  these areas, and then you will be truly happy, truly blessed,
• 26:07
  truly happy in this world, truly happy in the next.
• 26:11
  And may Almighty God bless you, make you happy.
• 26:15
  In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You've been listening
• 26:19
  to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost teens
• 26:24
  to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
• 26:28
  Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 26:33
  That's goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
• 26:36
  Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion. Thank you for listening
• 26:41
  to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio. Yeah.